Why does the prejudice of ginger hair persist? They’re teased, taunted and
even assaulted, all because of the colour of their hair.

A dimly lit street in Birmingham in the early hours of the morning: a man lurches out of a takeaway, an expression of hatred fixed upon his face. He shouts abuse at his victim, clenches his fist, then lands a sickening blow, knocking the other man out cold on to the pavement.

The reason for the assault? Astonishingly, the attacker appears to have been provoked not by anything his victim said or did, but by the colour of his hair.

“I remember walking into the pizza parlour and there were two of them [the attacker and his friend] sat on the left-hand side,” said Alex Kosuth-Phillips, 23, as police launched a fresh appeal this week for information on the incident that took place last February.

“One of them said something to my girlfriend, I asked what he said and he started swearing, becoming abusive and mocking my ginger hair. All I remember was opening the door and the next thing I knew I was in hospital, where I had to have two lots of surgery.”

Mr Kosuth-Phillips needed two metal plates inserted into his jaw following the assault and was forced to take food through a straw for three months.

His assault is an extreme example of what is a far from uncommon phenomenon – the abuse of redheads. From an innocent street victim to a Hollywood starlet, redheads (and any variations on this colour theme) are seen as fair game. Last week, the actress Jessica Chastain (The Help) said she had considered dying her red hair blonde earlier in her career due to the difficulty she faced in getting auditions.

Supermodel Lily Cole has spoken out recently about the abuse she has suffered as a “carrot top” or “ginger” and how she was bullied at school.

“Red hair is an issue,” she said. “Particularly in this country. Teachers often let it [bullying] happen because there isn’t a stigma around it in the way there is, quite rightly, about something like racism.”

Others who share her colouring agree. Mick Hucknall, who came to love his corkscrew red locks enough to name a band after them, has been forced to take to Twitter against “bigots”. The singer told his followers that such slurs are akin to racism. Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks is often described as “flame-haired”, while even Prince Harry does not escape. In 2009 Prince William mocked his brother during an interview, saying that he’s a “ginger… but he’s a good-looking ginger so it’s all right”.

Provisional statistics released late last year indicate that between 2 and 6 per cent of north-western Europeans are redheads, compared to an average of 1 or 2 per cent in the global population. But in the UK the numbers are much higher, with 13 per cent of Scottish people having red hair, 10 per cent of the Irish, and 6 per cent of individuals in England. Research at St Andrews University is under way to discover why Britain is the most red-headed part of the world. The main theory being pursued is that it is simply because our climate is a good deal cloudier than elsewhere and this, over thousands of years, has allowed light-skinned redheads to flourish.

But as British society grows ever more multicultural, and people of all races and religions share homes, schools and workplaces, is an aversion to redheads the last socially acceptable prejudice? Claude Knights, director of Kidscape, the anti-bullying and safeguarding children charity, believes it is.

“It seems to be a very British phenomenon,” she says. “In many European countries red hair is celebrated and seen as something going back to the Vikings, representing strength and vigour. Certainly, working with young people, it is an issue that comes up again and again. We have had cases where they have gone to the extent of dying their hair jet black or another colour to escape the abuse.

“We have also had young girls coming in for group sessions in which they will not take off their hats the entire time.’’

She added: “If you look at any school now in towns and cities across the country, the diversity will be huge. It is quite disturbing that despite that diversity, and the amazing work going on to celebrate it, there are still these issues. There is no logic to this. It is ingrained in some part of our folklore.”

Professor Robert Bartlett, an expert in medieval history at St Andrews University, says the discrimination dates back to Ancient Egypt, where the god Set was often depicted with pale skin and red-coloured hair and associated with terrible events such as earthquakes, thunderstorms and eclipses. Human sacrifices of redheads to appease his rage were supposedly made by worshippers.

Historically, Britons were more tolerant, he says. He cites the reign of the 11th-century King William II, nicknamed Rufus due to the colour of his tresses, as an example, while the crusaders willingly followed Richard the Lionheart into battle against Saladin despite his burnished complexion. Not to mention the beloved Gloriana herself, Tudor Queen Elizabeth I, under whose rule Britain prospered.

But for non-royal redheads, life was harder. In the 15th century, people with ginger hair were accused of being witches and burnt at the stake, while others were persecuted for their pale skin, which was seen as a sign of vampiric tendencies.

The late art historian, Dr Ruth Mellinkoff, discussed the plight of redheads in her book, Outcasts: Signs of Otherness in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Age. She claims that red hair and ruddy skin were considered suspect, impure and dangerous and condemned as opening a path to sin.

Later in the 19th century, an influx of poverty-stricken migrants from Ireland – where a staggering 50 per cent of the population is estimated to carry the redhead gene variant – is believed to have stoked public feeling further.

Just why this prejudice persists in 21st-century Britain is a mystery. Some anti-bullying campaigners blame the acceptability of ridicule and banter in social situations, even though it can often verge on the abusive and, as Kosuth-Phillips found, escalate into violence.

Perhaps the joke that can go too far is best illustrated by Davinia Phillips, the mother of three ginger-haired daughters from York. In 2009, she successfully petitioned Tesco to remove a Christmas card that showed a redhead being bounced on Santa’s knee, and read: “SANTA loves all kids. Even GINGER ones.”

“If it had been about a black child or an overweight child the store would have been shut down by now,” said Mrs Phillips at the time. ''I have shown it to a lot of friends and they are disgusted by it. I just don’t find it funny at all. It is discrimination, pure and simple.”